download these slides: college broadcasters, inc – fall 2010 conference remote radio broadcast...

Download these slides: www.friedbagels.com/cbi/College Broadcasters, Inc – Fall 2010 Conference

Remote Radio Broadcast Solutions for Sports & Live EventsAaron Read : WEOS & WHWS

Making your broadcast sound like the pros…or BETTER: the pros and cons!

Universal Truths

More options, better quality Less reliability, more confusion You need: Backups! Backups!

Backups! Backups! Backups! Never rely entirely what

anyone at the remote site tells you!

Download these slides: www.friedbagels.com/cbi/

Whad’ya Got Now?

“Zercom Max-Z” sound familiar?Similar phone hybrid?Durable, fairly reliableLousy audio quality


Upgrading to the modern age

POTS-based codecsComrex, Tieline

IP-based technologyComrex, Tieline, APT-X, Barix, etcWebcast / Skype


POTS Codecs

Plain Old Telephone Service Reliable, but require POTS lines

PBX or VoIP no good. Think “fax machine” or “computer modem”. Can be hard to get viable lines!

Sound pretty good, low delay Comrex (Access, Bluebox, Vector, Hotline),

Telos (Xport), Tieline (Commander, iMix), Mayah (C11n1)


IP Codecs

Becoming de facto standardWork over public internet

Wifi, wired ethernet, 3G cellphoneSome offer iPhone/Android apps

Comrex Access / Tieline iMix G3 or Commander G3 / Telos Zephyr Z/IP / AudioTX STL-IP / Musicam Suprima / APT Worldcast / AEQ Phoenix Mobile / Marti Digital Cellcast


Laptops & Skype

Latest Skype codecs = near CD quality. Delay is much reduced.

A netbook is light, portable & $300. Skype is free. Just add a 3G network card. Theoretically – Skype on a smartphone works, too!

Some stations use laptops with webcasts (WinMedia Enc) and time their breaks carefully back to the studio (b/c of delay)

Major advantage w/ campus I.T. security!


More on laptops

A $250 headset (i.e. AT BPHS-1) and a Shure X2B XLR-to-USB adapter makes a great external mixer substitute for one-man sportscasting.

If you need an external mixer, Conex FJ700 is good. Old Comrex Buddy on eBay? Cheap Behringer with outboard headphone amp?


Barix Boxes

Somewhat uniqueDedicated H/W stream mp3Fairly cheap (< $500 pair)Great for point-to-point on

campus


Other methods: ISDNIntegrated Systems Digital Network

Uses special digital phone linesMature, reliable, high-quality but

old and being phased outCommonly used by NPRExpensive ($3k - $5k pair)


Marti RPU: Remote Pickup Unit Requires a special license, may

be hard to get in metro areas. ~30w FM xmitter @ 450MHz Line-of-sight, zero-delay, one-

way audio Mature, reliable, simple …but

expensive


Fiber Optic solutions

Good for campus connectionsCD quality audio, near-zero delayVERY reliable, supported by I.T.Expensive ($3k per xceiver pair)


Going Old School: plain POTS

On a budget?Need dirt-simple tech?Don’t care about audio quality?POTS can be for you!


Plain POTS – tips & tricks

Test ahead of time Work with campus I.T. Get a good coupler/hybrid

JK Audio, Conex, CircuitwerksLook into a Bluetooth-based coupler

to a cellphone (Conex, JK Audio) or a handset hybrid (works with any office phone, not just POTS)


Number one problem!

AUDIO LEVELS OVERLOADING! Sportscasters get excited, shout, distort,

can’t understand a thing. Invest in a limiter on the headsets

Rolls CL151Behringer MDX2600Presonus COMP16

Even just a -10 or -20dB in-line pad helps!


Few other things…

Crowd mic = always goodRef mic = good (for some sports)Live Stats – pros / consBuddy System (PBP + Color Comm)Halftime shows – don’t play music


WEOS/WHWS Case Study

Couldn’t reliably get in-studio engineers Connected a spare Burk ARC-16 remote

control to our Logitek Numix/Remora mix board system

Sportscasters put themselves on-air using cellphone!

Use a netbook with Soundbyte to play intro/outros, underwriting, promos, etc


Soundbyte (Audio Playback) BlackCatSystems.com One-touch playback of

specific cuts or one cut from a playlist.

Little buggy at times, but overall very easy to use and powerful


Tools in the Toolbox WEOS does ~ 175 live events/spots every year. Often two at once

(WEOS & WHWS) So we have SEVERAL tools at our disposal. Comrex Access: Boswell Field, Cozzens Field, McCooey Field, Bristol Gym,

lectures @ Albright Auditorium, live concerts from The Smith, and many sports games on the road.

Comrex Vector: McCooey Field, many sports games on the road. Fiber: (via old Comrex Buddy Mixer) Boswell Field, Bristol Gym. Fiber: STL, also incoming RPU feeds from the RX antennas. Barix Boxes: lectures @ Geneva Room, City Council meetings, lectures @ MPR

in Student Center. Telos Xstream ISDN: Geneva City Ice Rink, The Smith Opera House. Marti RPU: commencement, random remotes (Congressman’s speech),

random on-campus events, hockey backup.

Total count? 1 Access, 1 Vector, 1 Xstream ISDN, 1 Zephyr Portable ISDN, 2 Marti RPU’s, 3 Barix boxes, 5 Fiber links (4 permanent, 1 floating)


Q&A – plus some URL’s for you!


www.comrex.com www.telos-systems.com www.tieline.com www.aptx.com www.musicamusa.com www.audiotx.com www.shoutcast.com www.lightwavesys.com www.martielectronics.com www.aeqbroadcast.com

www.jkaudio.com www.rolls.com www.bswusa.com www.zZounds.com www.presonus.com www.fring.com www.skype.com blackcatsystems.com www.friedbagels.com/blog

Aaron’s blog – contact him here

www.friedbagels.com/cbi/ Download these slides

download these slides: college broadcasters, inc – fall 2010 conference remote radio broadcast...

Documents

expensive download

pots codecs

ip codecs

old comrex buddy

low delay comrex access

reliable lousy audio

tieline commander

better quality